The Harold & Maudecast - Sarah Mason & Jake Essoe

Take a tour with Sarah and Jake from the Harold & Maudecast of VR Con -- Futurism and Tech Pavilion @ San Diego International Comic-Con!

VR CON @ COMIC-CON, the hub for Virtual Reality experiences and technology, expands this year to become FUTURISM & TECH @ COMIC-CON. This official event of Comic-Con International San Diego has added more space dedicated to Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) attractions from the likes of Paramount Pictures and NBC Universal, debuts other groundbreaking technologies, and infuses art and visual expression. Global superstars The Black Eyed Peas will present their new AR experience based on the graphic novel “Masters of the Sun - The Zombie Chronicles” (Marvel), with AR hardware partner Mira.

Sarah and Jake get a personalized tour of all these cool displays and attractions from VR Con Co-Founders, Scott Bobrow and Mark Murphy. The event takes place July 19-23 at the Omni Hotel in downtown San Diego, across from the Convention Center as part of San Diego International Comic-Con.

For more information about VR Con visit, www.vrconevents.com

For more excerpts from Sarah and Jake's tour and interviews with some of the leading manufacturers of VR, AR, MR and AI visit www.thehmcnetwork.com

Winter is here! And Thrones is finally back to fill our Sunday nights with Dragons, Dire Wolves, White Walkers and Giant Zombies. The premiere episode kicked off on July 16, "Dragonstone". We find our old friends haven't changed much. Jon and Sansa are arguing over strategy, Cersei is the Wicked Witch of the South, The Hound is still grumpy, but might have grown a conscience, Arya is more of a badass then we ever imagined, Samwell Tarly is knee deep in shit and asking Professor Slughorn for books from the restricted section, and Daenerys has finally come home to Westeros to find that Stannis wasn't a very good castle guest, the place is a freakin mess!

Also bonus, look for that famous Ed Sheerhan cameo that's hating up the internet. Stay tuned for our weekly recaps as we take up the torch for tormented fans everywhere.

For more episodes of We Talk Thrones and other tv, movie and game reviews visit www.thehmcnetwork.com

Tom Holland (THE IMPOSSIBLE) takes over the role of Peter Parker/Spider Man alongside Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) in this Disney- downed reboot of the Marvel classic character. When first we saw young Spidey he was fighting Avengers in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR. Alas returning to high school is a pretty big let down for Peter Parker who continually pesters Tony Stark's man Happy (Jon Favreau) for new assignments. When it's clear that Tony has benched him, for now, Peter goes looking for bad guys on his own and quickly finds more danger than a Spider Man in training can handle.

SPIDER MAN: HOMECOMING should be called IRON MAN 3.5. Disney took Marvel's [arguably] coolest super hero character and stripped him of everything that makes him so powerful and unique. Sony owns the rights to the character Spider-Man but lent him out to Disney so that Marvel could tie the character into AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. What a mistake Sony. You had the best Marvel character and you let Disney turn him into a Junior Avenger at Tony Stark's day camp.

Exhibit 1: The Suit
After Peter Parker's high school buddy hacks into the special suit that Stark designed for Spider-Man, he discovers that he can be Iron Man too! The suit comes equipped with his own personal Jarvis "Karen" who counsels him on everything from Taser web shooters to his love life. And that spider on the suit's chest? It's a drone! That he calls Droney. Droney helps him find the bad guys even if he needs Tony to help him fight them.

Spider-Man was unique because he was a kid (an older kid this Peter Parker is 15) who was super smart and able to use his intelligence to craft his own suit and discover his powers on his own. Spider-Man's spider sense is not even addressed, which is arguably what makes him one of the most powerful super heroes of all time. That super power allows him to manipulate time and space, and energy and it sets him apart. Yeah well I guess Tony Stark hasn't mentored this Peter Parker on the merits of his super powers sans suit yet. Maybe they're leaving that for the sequel.

At San Diego Comic-Con 2016 the filmmakers SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING likened their version of the film to the style of John Hughes (UNCLE BUCK, SIXTEEN CANDLES etc). But that's way too kind and a discredit to the charm and genius of John Hughes. This is Disney Channel Spider-Man at best without any of the sophistication and depth of the classic comic book character. If you're a diehard fan of Spider-Man, wait till Sony gets him back. No Justice for this Spidey. 5/10

Bonus in this podcast episode we continue our obsession with foreign horror films with two Now Streaming reviews of THEM and BASKIN.

For more podcasts, movie reviews and our countdown to SDCC17 visit www.thehmcnetwork.com

This week on The Harold & Maudecast, Episode 302, Countdown to Thrones & SDCC. Hosts Sarah Mason and Jake Essoe Countdown to the Season 7 premiere of Game of Thrones with recaps, theories, predictions and more. With San Diego Comic Con only three weeks away, we've got the list of the hottest panels and a preview of what to expect at SDCC 2017. Now playing in theaters, BABY DRIVER, Edgar Wright (SHAUN OF THE DEAD), new action heist film hits theaters and we give it our full Justice & Doom review.

For more podcasts, movie, game reviews, con coverage and more visit www.thehmcnetwork.com

Baby (Elgort) is a reluctant yet talented wheel man coerced into driving for crime boss Doc (Spacey) to pay off an old debt. Baby's unique use of music makes him unstoppable behind the wheel but draws suspicion from the crew. When Baby meets the woman of his dreams, Deborah (Lily James), he must decide how much he's willing to risk before it's too late for a new life.

BABY DRIVER is the not your usual bank heist, action film. It's highly stylized and makes clever use of its soundtrack--which is essentially the other lead character in the film. Edgar Wright, who along with collaborators Simon Pegg and Nick Frost gave us the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, SHAUN OF THE DEAD, HOT FUZZ and AT WORLD'S END, makes an uncommon but brilliant transition to action genre proving once again, a good film is all about the writing. The story drives this picture along with some great performances. With one fell swoop Elgort graduates from teen drama prince (THE FAULT IN OUR STARS, The DIVERGENT SERIES) to Oscar worthy actor. He's fantastic as the questionably quirky, music-dependent orphan who finds his way out of his hard luck circumstances with love.

We highly recommend this film. Go see it in theaters -- it warrants a big screen view. 8.6/10